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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is suggesting he doesn’t need approval from city council to replace Transit City with his subway-based plan, but rather from his hand-picked TTC board.

The new mayor will have a fight on his hands from some councillors and, apparently, the Ontario government that is footing the multi-billion-dollar bill to expand Toronto transit.

Ford made the comments Tuesday after leaving a briefer-than-expected first official meeting with Premier Dalton McGuinty.

“As you know, there was never a vote on council for Transit City, and if there was I’d like to see that,” Ford told reporters after their chat.

“We never voted on Transit City . . . (Ford’s pick for TTC chair) Karen Stintz is a very, very capable councillor — she’s setting up our TTC commission with some very good councillors.

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“We’re going to work with the province to implement our plan, our subway plan. And our subway plan is to go underground. That’s what I campaigned on, that’s what the people want.”

It is true that council was never asked to vote to support the Transit City plan as a whole. Council did vote on Transit City-related issues 13 times between June 2009 and June 2010, including funding, land acquisitions and transit study recommendations, city records show.

The votes that were recorded show Ford consistently opposing initiatives for the network of light-rail lines connecting downtown to the suburbs. He says streetcars slow car traffic, and campaigned on extending the Sheppard subway to Scarborough Town Centre and converting the aging Scarborough LRT to subway.

City councillors supportive of Transit City said the new mayor has a fight on his hands if he wants to shut them out of the debate.

“There’s an enormous outcry of people wanting city officials to debate this intelligently, with all the outcomes if we cancel Transit City.”

Pam McConnell (Ward 28, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) said the new council must have a say because “it’s a city-wide issue of importance to all of Toronto, especially suburban residents.”

Ford, after emerging from the 25-minute meeting that was scheduled to last an hour, told reporters he thanked McGuinty for agreeing to pay the city about $52 million to cover half of Toronto’s costs for the Ontario Works welfare program.

He also lauded the Premier for repeating that the province is ready to stop collecting Toronto’s $60 vehicle registration tax Jan. 1, should Ford get it scrapped as expected at next week’s council meeting.

“It was a very productive meeting. We’re going to have a good working relationship,” Ford said.

But he ignored reporters’ questions about whether McGuinty expressed any willingness to divert $3.1 billion in committed Transit City funding to his subway plan.

Later, McGuinty expressed hope Ford and his council can agree on a way forward, the Star’s Rob Ferguson reports.

“I think there’s going to be a healthy, vigorous and important debate that will unfold at Toronto. I look forward to observing that,” the Premier said.

His transportation minister, Kathleen Wynne, told reporters it’s her understanding that “pieces” of Transit City were approved by council and she believes only council can signal a change in direction.

“People are suffering because of congestion,” Wynne said. “All these councillors represent wards, they have constituencies, so they’re going to bring these constituents’ views to the table. That’s where this conversation needs to go.”

Ford shows no sign of backing down in the fight and, in his inaugural address later Tuesday, compared himself to a famous political scrapper.

“. . . Toronto’s first mayor William (Lyon) Mackenzie was a bit of a rebel,” Ford said. “He was a colourful character who was not accepted by the establishment because he fought against privilege and for the little guy.

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